This invention relates to a method and apparatus for removing binder from around a telecommunications cable core.
Conventionally, telecommunication cables are constructed of multiple pairs of individually insulated conductors grouped together to form a cable core, which may then be surrounded by a protective sheath. During manufacture of a cable, a spirally applied binder tape or filament may be wound around conductors of the core, for the purpose of holding together the conductors along the length of the cable core, before application of surrounding material such as a core wrap, a protective sheath and a cable jacket. Binder tapes or filaments may also be used to separate and identify, by binder colour, each of a number of groups of conductors forming separate core units which are assembled together to form the cable core of a large diameter multiconductor cable.
Testing of cable cores following their manufacture may reveal defective conductors. If it is required to remove and replace a defective conductor pair with a new conductor pair, or to reuse (recycle) good conductors, the binder tape must first be removed before the conductors can be separated from the group. The binder tape is removed manually by cutting and unwinding the binder, and this task is labor intensive and time consuming.